Day 9 Bamako (05/07/09) (ps.s read this from bottom to top)

This is our lab mentor Agnes. She took us to the National Museum Sunday morning. We picked her up at her house on the way and it was a bit surprising that a person with a PhD in Pharamcy would live in a mud brick house. Here it seems that most of the work that would be done by lab technicians in the US (which doesn't really require a degree) is done by MDs and PhDs here.
At the museum there were several interesting exhibits, though not very much information of the group I find the most interesting, the Tellem people. There was an exhibit of the history of the Dogon, on the movement of Islam into the region and even a textiles exhibit, as well as several models of famous Malian buildings outside.




In the afternoon we made plans to go to the horse race with Izak. It took us a while to get there though because there aren't many taxis. I took this picture of the street outside of the university while we were waiting for one of Izack's friends to come with a car.









(I can't figure out how to turn this picture right side up). We finally made it to the races, but because we were late it was pretty crowded. There are not seating stands so it was a bit difficult to see, but we managed to catch two of the races (though not the final one).
While we were there we bumped into 2 French girls that Izack knew who are doing a rotation in the hospital Gabriel Tores in Bamako. (Apparently in France you decide what your going to do right after high school, so they go directly into medical school, which is 6 years long).









After watching the races for a while we got pretty thirsty and head out to look for a bar near by. Apparently we got special treatment as foreigners because the bar was supposed to be closed off (the street was the president's exit route and was closed off for security). We sat down and had a drink with Izack, his friend, the two French girls and even bumped into another strange character, Omar while we were there. As we were sitting there I looked up and noticed some parachuters coming down, apparently this was the grand finale for the races.










Eventually we headed out and as we were leaving we got to see the President's motorcade go bye. This picture (from L to R) is Izack, Omar, me and someone Omar dragged in. Afterwards I had my first European goodbye with the slightly awkward double check kissing (Omar gave somewhat moist kisses, I'm glad I live in America).